surely be highly animating. For, can it fail to occur, that on these depends the future support of the rich and the poor, and that, indeed, on agriculture is, based the entire fabric of human civilization ? And when we behold the sons of labor plying their vocations in the field, whether or not it be our lot to mingle in their toil, can we fail to admire the wide expanse of valley and plain, smiling with green blades or ripened ears, the rich reward of their diligence, and to reflect that, but for cultivation and its cares, the country would be a pestilential forest or marsh, the extremes of heat and cold would be fatally severe, and, a still greater evil, man would be plunged in ignorance and sloth, if not also pinched by a scanty and precarious subsistence? We are thus forced to exclaim, with the bard of the Seasons,

"These are thy blessings, Industry! rough power
Whom labor still attends, and sweat, and pain:
Yet the kind source of every gentle art,
And all the soft civility of life."

Even in his state of innocence, man was not without his labor. Adam had assiduously to cultivate his happy and beautiful abode; which shows that his Creator formed him for action as well as contemplation, and that industry was essential to his highest happiness. In the emphatic words of the great poet,

"Man hath his daily work of body or mind
Appointed, which declares his dignity,

And the regard of Heaven on all his ways."

J.D.

NINTH WEEK-SUNDAY.

SPIRITUAL TRAINING BY AFFLICTION.

THE principle, as we have seen, by which we are so remarkably urged forward in the path of improvement,

is privation. This implies suffering; and, in fact, the fear of suffering, on the one hand, and the hope of enjoyment, on the other, are two of the strongest motives of human conduct. Such is obviously not a state of perfection, but of discipline; and every thing, in the various providential arrangements of the world, strikingly corresponds to this condition. We are under training for eternity; and this is the important view in which we are taught, by the Gospel, to consider all the events of life. While we painfully labor for the food which perishes, we are reminded by the voice of Revelation, that there is a food which endures to everlasting life, for the attainment of which, we ought, above all things, to exert our rational powers. To lead us on this path of duty, Divine Providence is constantly employed. Hence God is very frequently represented in Scripture under the character of a Father and Instructer. We hear of His rod of correction; of His profitable chastisements; of the heart being made better by the sadness of the countenance. The same thing is taught when Christ is exhibited to us under the character of a Physician. He gives us bitter medicine, that he may cure us. He probes the wound, that he may heal it.

It is delightful to dwell on this view of our God and Saviour. Nothing can be more endearing than the assurance that we are the objects of his constant regard,— that he numbers the hairs of our head, and counts our tears, and that all things are working together for our good. What a different character do privation and suffering assume, when viewed in this light. From curses they are converted into blessings. When we think of "the light affliction of the present moment, working out a far more exceeding, even an eternal weight of glory,' we cease to complain,—we learn even to rejoice in our afflictions. It was this, which sustained the apostles, the martyrs, and the confessors of our holy religion,which made them " more than conquerors, " and which enabled them triumphantly to exclaim, "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed! we are perplexed, but not in despair! persecuted, but not forsaken! cast

down, but not destroyed!" "Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,' "" shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

:

But this view is not less instructive than it is delightful. Is God our Father? Then, if He teaches, we must learn if He gives warning, we must listen: if He chastises, we must be corrected. Is He our Physician? Then, if He administers medicine, however bitter and nauseous, ought we not cheerfully to drink the cup to the very dregs? If, to heal us, he probes our wounds to the quick, ought we not, without shrinking, nay, thankfully, to submit?

The afflictions, to which the providence of God is pleased to subject us, in this sublunary state, are various and severe. He at one time tries us by withdrawing some cherished enjoyment; at another, by inflicting some positive suffering. Our hopes may be disappointed; our worldly affairs may become embarrassed; our friends may prove unfaithful; our children undutiful or profligate; sickness may invade the family circle; death may sever the dearest ties which bind us to life. These are distressing dispensations; but who will say that, if received in the right spirit, they are not salutary? Alas! we make idols to ourselves of earthly things; prosperity withdraws our hearts from God; and is it not well that He should deprive us of that which betrays us? if it were otherwise?—if God, in just indignation, ceased to chastise us?—if the sentence pronounced upon Ephraim were uttered against us, "They They are joined to their idols, let them alone?" But it is not so. God still trains us as his children; when we are afflicted, it is the hand of a Father which corrects us. When he hides his face, it is in mercy. He waits to be gracious.

What

God deals with us in spiritual, as He does in temporal things; and here, too, his mode of acting is frequently beyond our power to unravel. He bestows and with

holds the blessings of his grace, often in a manner, and for reasons, that baffle human judgement. In all his act

ings, He is, doubtless, guided by unerring wisdom and goodness; but to us it appears as if the sunshine and the cloud in the spiritual atmosphere, were as fitful and capricious as seem to be the analogous changes in the natural atmosphere. Both are regulated by a will, which, on account of its infinite superiority to ours, we cannot follow in all its plans; but which never fails to effect the most beneficent purposes. When the snow lies on the ground, and all things wear the aspect of desolation and death, the germs of future vegetation are preparing to be unfolded, and the insect race are lying cradled in their snug retreats, to rise to life in the genial heat of returning spring. In the advancing year, when, at times, the smiles of a warmer sun are withdrawn, and the fair face of day is shrouded in clouds and tempest, there is still a secret hand at work, "staying the rough wind in the day of the east wind," and leading the seasons onward in their steady course. And so it is with the operations of Divine grace. The light of religion may seem to be withdrawn, for ages, from whole districts and countries, nay, almost from the world, and a cold and cheerless winter may appear to envelope all; yet still the germ of life is there, and life, itself. In times of Israel's greatest defection, when the prophet thought he stood alone in his faithfulness, God reassured him with the declaration, that he had yet reserved to himself, in that apparently dark and lifeless land, seven thousand persons who had not bowed the knee to Baal. Again, when the light of the gospel has begun to shine brightly on a favored spot, and the spring of a spiritual year seems to be vivifying the Divine seed far and wide, and causing a dead soil to start into life and beauty, there often comes a fierce and chilling blast, which appears to bring back gloom, blight, and ruin, to an awakening world. But here, too, there is mercy mingled with judgement; the warmth, which seems to have abandoned the atmosphere, still lingers in the ground; the rays of the Sun of Righteousness have penetrated too deep to have their influence extinguished by a passing tempest; the storm has raged, and the gloom has lowered, but, meanwhile, the rain of heaven has moistened the earth;

and, when the jarring elements have expended their fury, thousands of plants open their bosoms to the genial influence, and find the air more pure and balmy, and the sky more bright and serene.

Yes! He, who searches the heart, knows His own. The Holy Spirit is never absent, though His operations are not always visible to our feeble and jaundiced eyes. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." There is a sovereignty in Divine grace, which mocks human research; yet never does the secret aspiration of the pious soul escape the ear of the Saviour, or fail to bring down an answer of peace. I know not if there be any thing more encouraging to the affectionate and doubting heart, in all the gracious declarations of our Lord, than that simple but soul-moving answer, by which he satisfied the anxiety of the guileless Nathanael, "Before Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee." To know that we are always the objects of Divine care; that there is an unseen Eye ever watching over us for good, a secret Ear listening to our deepbreathed prayers, a silent Hand bringing good out of seeming evil, and causing even sorrow and suffering, sickness, and death, itself, to promote our eternal interests,—this is peace! this is triumph!—a peace which passeth understanding—a triumph which is a foretaste of celestial joy.

NINTH WEEK-MONDAY.

NATURE OF SOILS.

I HAVE already cursorily adverted to the nature of the soil, and its general diffusion over the surface of the earth. I have also noticed the natural distribution of plants, and some of the remarkable properties with which they are endowed, so as to preserve a salutary balance between those which are more and those which are less